CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wpfmidinaudio
lisa p.
lisa p.

Reputation: 2158

Playing MIDI-files and synchronizing time with visuals with WPF

I'm writing an application using C#/Windows Presentation Foundation. It is visualizing the steps of a dance with foot shapes. Currently I'm playing the music as WAV-file and timing the steps with a Timer.

Because of the irregularities of a Timer the music is not in sync with the steps. I need some kind of synchronization, this is why I wanted to use MIDI-files.

To sync the steps I need an event for each time in the music and would then show the next step. In this case I wouldn't use the Timer anymore.

I already looked at NAudio. I found tutorials for playing MP3-files which don't help me. I created a MidiFile-object but I don't know how to play it. I know that a MIDI-file contains information on how to play the music (for synthesizers) but I don't want to implement my own player.

  1. What is a simple way to play a MIDI-file with NAudio?

  2. How can I receive Events in each time of the music?

  3. Is there an alternative to NAudio that can probably help me better?

  4. Is there an alternative to MIDI that can sync to my visualization?

I am thankful for every kind of help. I've been searching for a while and think that I am maybe looking in the wrong direction.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2217

Answers (2)

Maxim
Maxim

Reputation: 2128

With DryWetMIDI (I'm the author) playing MIDI files along with firing played events is pretty simple:

namespace SimplePlaybackApp
{
    class Program
    {
        private static Playback _playback;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var midiFile = MidiFile.Read("The Greatest Song Ever.mid");

            var outputDevice = OutputDevice.GetByName("Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth");

            _playback = midiFile.GetPlayback(outputDevice);
            _playback.EventPlayed += OnEventPlayed;
            _playback.Start();

            SpinWait.SpinUntil(() => !_playback.IsRunning);

            Console.WriteLine("Playback stopped or finished.");

            outputDevice.Dispose();
            _playback.Dispose();
        }

        private static void OnEventPlayed(object sender, MidiEventPlayedEventArgs e)
        {
            // ... do something
        }
    }
}

More info in Playback article and Playback API reference.

Upvotes: 1

JDPeckham
JDPeckham

Reputation: 2524

If you want to get deeper into the midi internals this looked like a pretty cool library and source code to explore.

http://code.google.com/p/midi-dot-net/

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions